Dr. Prabaha Sikder, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MCE), has received $3.2 million in funding over five years from the National Institutes of Health for a project titled, “Multi-functional 3D Printed Dental Implants for Preventing Peri-implantitis.” The research focuses on developing a unique multi-functional 3D printed dental implant that will effectively minimize peri-implantitis, i.e., dental implant-related infection incidences for patients needing artificial tooth/teeth. This unique infection-resistant and bioactive dental implant can also be tailored according to patient defects and will relieve patients from the aftermaths of infections, such as surgical pain, repeated clinic visits for treatment, prolonged recovery time, reliability on antibiotics, and added therapy costs.

As with much of Dr. Sikder’s research, the new technology is targeted for translation out of the lab and into practice. This work will be performed in collaboration with world-class engineers and renowned scientists Dr Marco C. Bottino at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and Dr. Lukasz Witek at New York University, School of Dentistry.

This is Dr. Sikder’s second NIH grant awarded in 2024. He recently received a $148,500 award to study the use of controlled piezoelectric stimulation for regenerative therapy to treat major skeletal muscle injuries and defects such as volumetric muscle loss.